It's true that boxing is declining there was a golden time period in which boxing has much importance in sports but now everyone is losing hope in boxing it's not just because the supply of boxers decreases it's just because there are not as many big companies who promote boxing like UFC.
1st UFC is NOT a league or association, PFL pretends to be a league. And Al Haymon set up PBC to be a league like you are talking about but only TGB is in as Haymon has lots of fighters but no real other promotions. This content is protected If rumors are true and TKO Group Holdings is buying TR then we may see TKO buy more boxing promotions then we would see monopoly worries and interference of their buying, as a true League Association like NBA or NFL has many owners coming together more like ProBoxTV (Roy Jones Jr, Juan Manuel Marquez, Antonio Tarver and Paul Malignaggi).
The "cold war" we had in the early 2010s was the closest we could get to it. Haymon stole a ton of prominent names from GP and HBO and put them on SHO. And at the time, they had their own young talent they managed to cultivate. So we ended up with some amazing triple and quadruple headers on SHO. HBO in return did their best to compete and to outdo them. It was a good time, all things considered.
1) MMA is a niche sport & not anymore mainstream than Boxing 2) What the UFC has would be illegal in US boxing as per the Ali act 3) In UFC what we consider corruption is legal whether it be 1-1 Lesnar getting a title shot or fighters Dana doesn't like not being given title shots for a long time 4) MMA is smaller than boxing worldwide. People know who Sor Rungvisai is in Thailand not UFC & which MMA star compares to Inoue in Japan (very interesting comparison too because MMA had a dramatic collapse in Japan when Pride FC died though at that point MMA's # 1 market in the world as Japan, perils of tying your sports survival with a promotion like UFC illustrated right there) 5) Inactivity is increasingly a serious problem in UFC just like in boxing https://www.essentiallysports.com/u...-gets-yet-another-accusation-laid-out-on-him/ 6) Boxing did have an attempted UFC in the 1950's with the mob linked IBC of NY but it was dissolved by SCOTUS for violating anti trust laws after the US Federal gov't filed a case against them 7) Boxing is losing popularity narrative usually comes from Americans & Canadians who use the past of their countries as their point of reference. As a boxing I care about boxing worldwide & compared to the past boxing is far more global now, hell in Soviet times you couldn't even turn pro & we all know how many great boxers came from the ex communist bloc since Soviet collapse 8) Boxing is too big for 1 or 2 promoters to adequately represent all the pro boxers (multiple times more than pro MMA fighters) active worldwide at any given time You want an example of which sport is more popular worldwide (not just in American suburbs)? Boxing is a high school sport in Japan, MMA is not (though just 15 years ago MMA was doing big ratings in Japan when Pride FC was the #1 MMA promotion). Many top boxers made their names in high school boxing tournaments including Inoue The most popular boxing anime/manga Hajime no Ippo is about a high schooler who starts boxing: By July 2023, the manga had over 100 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajime_no_Ippo see what Nasukawa Tenshin had to say about why he switched to boxing from kickboxing instead of MMA: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...vel-of-trust-from-the-japanese-public.713312/
I found this the most interesting part. It´s likely why MMA won´t be a global sport any time soon. There is simply no accessibility for fighters from some of the best areas in the world; be it Japan, South-America or even Europe. The guys from 105 to 126 simply do not have a place to go.
Yes that is why I am against these moaners who cry about below 118 weight classes You may not care about them but there are markets for them & potentially vast one's too. Chinese are close to Japanese in body frames & heights, imagine how stupid it would be of boxing to not cater to that enormous market. I remember the Bobfather was holding Macau shows trying to crack that market but it didn't work out. I hope that changes, its too bad Zhang is so old & being kept waiting even now, imagine what a young dynamic Chinese HW could do for boxing in China Same with South Korea & Taiwan which along with Japan are also developed countries that can help boxers make money without coming to the US Vietnam & other growing economies in Asia also have the same body types They also never discuss the disaster that hit Japanese MMA when Pride FC went under while heaping praise on UFC. In the short term the UFC model might seem great but you are staking your sports survival on a promotion & if something goes wrong with the UFC, imagine the state of MMA in the markets where it has pull Losing the Japanese market for MMA was no joke because Japan was the 2nd largest economy on the planet when it happened (3rd or 4th now) but these UFC fans don't care about all that because their horizons don't extend beyond their US suburbs
